Saturday 10 March 2012 10.41 EST
First published on Saturday 10 March 2012 10.41 EST

The stardust double act of Rory McIlroy and Tiger Woods briefly threatened on a day when Doral's monstrous reputation was buried for good but when the final round of the Cadillac Championship begins on Sunday the pole position will be filled by Bubba Watson, with Justin Rose and Keegan Bradley in pursuit.

The fidgety Yank versus the mellow Englishman versus the geeky ingenue is no one's idea of an ageless triumvirate but in the here and now, in a week when they have dominated the upper reaches of the leaderboard, there is enough contrast in personality and style of play to hold the attention.

Watson gives the ball a lash with a quirky swing and then sets off in pursuit. Rose is more of a scientist, plotting his way around with quiet aplomb. Bradley lies somewhere between the two extremes – a bomber off the tee, a librarian around the greens. He is a major champion, a better player than many gave him credit for after his win at last year's PGA Championship in Atlanta.

On Friday, Watson ripped this place apart with a 10-under par 62, with his Englishman playing partner only two shots worse. Neither man played as well on Saturday, but they did not exactly embarrass themselves either, with Watson signing for a five-under-par 67 and Rose for a 69.

They would have played together for a fourth successive day had not the Englishman three-putted the final green, dropping into a tie for second place with Bradley on 14-under par for the tournament, three shots behind the leader. In a different week, on a different course, a three-shot advantage might have been cause for a restful Saturday night's slumber but not on the so-called "Blue Monster".

"A resort course," McIlroy called the layout after his round. This was not meant to be a compliment and the Northern Irishman threw in another adjective: outdated. "They definitely need to do something with it," he said.

When a professional golfer complains about a layout it can be taken as read that he has just endured a torrid day. This was not the case with the world No1, who made his comments after signing for a seven-under-par 65 and a tie for ninth place – a great score and a good position by any measure but it seems McIlroy is measured differently these days, even by himself.

He was disappointed, he said, after playing his opening nine holes in six under par. He then eagled the par-five 10th hole and birdied the 12th, opening up the possibility of the breaking 60. Alas it was not to be, as a pair of careless bogeys on the back nine stalled his momentum.

Tiger Woods was no less impressive over his opening stretch, hitting birdies on his first three holes, but he too faltered on the back nine. The two men, who seemed destined to battle out it out at next month's Masters, will start the final round on nine under par, eight shots behind the leader.

"I never thought I would stand up here and say I'm disappointed with seven-under but today is definitely one of those days," McIlroy said. "It's OK. It would have been nice to post something – 61, 62 or whatever – but at least I've put myself sort of back into the tournament and given myself a chance to post a high finish, at least. So that's a positive."

The good news is that something is to be done about the course now that it has been bought by Donald Trump. The even better news is that Trump has hired the golf course architect Gil Hanse to redesign the place. Hanse is hardly a household name, but he is adored by the cognoscenti, both the players and the critics in the peanut gallery – a status reflected in the decision to give him the honour of designing the course that will be used when the sport returns to the Olympics at Rio in 2016. The quiet American "gets it", as the saying goes. He understands that professional golf is meant to be interesting for the players and entertaining for the public, and his courses straddle that difficult divide with an aesthetic ease.